Hydrophobic polycarbonate monolith with mesoporous nest-like structure: an effective oil sorbent

摘要

Polycarbonate (PC) monolith with three-dimensional interconnected mesoporous nest-like structure was first fabricated by thermally impacted nonsolvent-induced phase separation (TINIPS) method. Owing to continuously interlaced nanofibrous skeleton, the monolith possessed a high specific surface area of 95,02 m(2)/g. This novel structure also contributed to the improvement of hydrophobicity so that a high water contact angle of 143.9 degrees was obtained. Furthermore, the as-prepared monolith could effectively adsorb various types of oils. Based on such a unique structure as well as these outstanding properties, the PC monolith will play a big role in the field of oil sorbents.